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Category Archives: trees

Last week, Facebook alerted me to the fact that two kittens were on their way to the pound. We were catless at the moment, so I piled my kids in the car and drove over to pick up those kitties!

As soon as my kids got out of the car, the two kittens came running over to us. Friendly? Check! They were stinky from sleeping in a litter box, but their eyes and ears were clean. Healthy? Check! The kittens slept on Kirstyn and Cory’s laps on the way home, and then a flea/tick shampooing produced sweet-smelling babies in no time.

This gray one is Kirstyn’s, a female she named Fluffy Mittens. Cory named his striped kitten Snowfie Bobtail.

We’re assuming the kittens came from the same litter, so either one or both of these cats will have to be “fixed.” No redneck inbreeds running around here!

Mittens and Bobtail follow the kids all around the yard, and climb up into a lap as soon as someone sits down. They’re adorable!

This past weekend we picked up and planted my other new babies — the trees! (The ones we bought and left at the nursery?) Derek’s parents planted trees too, and it took over six hours to get everything dug, planted, watered, and mulched.

I am SO EXCITED about the color in two of my maples, and planted them on either side of the driveway. They bring a little bit of New England home for me!

These driveway trees will be shading the house from the evening sun. Besides being pretty, the trees are helping us to be “green” and energy-efficient.

The sugar maple by the fence is right outside my kitchen window, and will shade the house from the morning sun.

That maple down there in the center is um… decorative. Because I have a tree addiction.

I have dreams of one day, when all these sugar maples are large, tapping the trees, collecting and boiling down the sap, and making my own maple syrup. It takes forty to fifty gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. So, even with thirteen maple trees, I’d probably end up with just a gallon of syrup every year.

We also planted this smokebush on Saturday, just because! I have fond memories of playing in a big smokebush in Williamsburg, MA, when I was a little girl.

I love that our grass is green again! It’s beautiful here! No new human babies to report yet, and I’m still waiting for a puppy, a goat, a bunny, or even a cow.

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Welcome!

I'm Ruth, the mom that lives here. "Our little patch of heaven" is a home we built with our bare hands, on an acre of land in the country. Our six kids are what truly make it heaven! We love each other, we love God, and we love our messy, noisy life. Most of the stories you find here will be about our adventures as a family, the wild and sweet children I call mine, and my attempt to be the best wife and mom I can be.